5100

"Mmmm NNNN aujourd'hui mmenm cinquante meee. nnn." 

"Parlez-vous lentement, S'il vous plaît,"

The man speaking French at 500 miles a minute slowed down after my request, and then I understood. It was the vet.

We'd taken Sherlock there that afternoon for a cut on his foot.

When the vet spoke slowly, I understood. Instead of entering 51.00 Euros in the card machine, he had moved the decimal point (only in Europe it is a comma) two place to the right. Our bank account had been debited 5,100.00 Euros.

He promised to take care of it in the morning.

The next morning, he called and said he'd been to the bank, and he needed our debit card and we made an appointment for the afternoon.

One of the joys of being in Argelès we can walk to everything, including the vet.

When he called the bank to make the final correction, they gave him another story,

Frustrated we went to the bank (a three minute walk--including sniff time for Sherlock who was with us and was relieved to be leaving the vet without being touched, poked or inoculated by him). 

A third story of what to do by the first bank employee and a fourth set of directions came from yet another. We've discovered in France that different rules, regulations and directions equal the number of people giving them.

We found our own solution. The 5,100.00 in his account from ours would be simply replaced by him writing us a check for the amount and we will deposit it into our bank account.

He wrote the check. We are about to head for the bank. 

The best part?

We'll stop for the Chinese buffet that is a block from the bank.